Islam is part of the history of the European continent. It flourished in Andalusia, and through the Ottoman Empire it later spread to the Balkans.
Islam has been present in Europe for more than a millennium. During the Middle Ages, Andalusia was under Islamic influence for a long time. However, the religion and culture of Islam have left the greatest imprint on the countries of South-Eastern Europe. Islamic identity is generally a part of Europe, much like the Christian and Jewish worldviews are part of societies in the Middle East and North Africa.
This is particularly evident in the Balkans. Islam came with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire after 1453 to South-Eastern Europe and is still present on a different scale in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, in the Sandjak region in Serbia, in Kosovo, in Dobrudja in Romania, as well as and in Bulgaria. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania Muslims are the majority of the population, in North Macedonia Muslim Albanians are one third. Many Roma in South-Eastern Europe also profess the Islamic faith.
Islam spread gradually in the Balkans
The spread of Islam in the Balkans is a complex historical process - not fast, but gradual, lasting between 100 and 150 years, Turkologist professor Mehmet Hadjisalioglu tells DV. For the Ottomans, the first priority was not so much the religious offensive as extracting revenue from the conquered states in Southeast Europe - in the form of taxes, duties and services, Gudrun Kremer, a professor of Islamic studies, points out. The new rulers were mostly interested in lands and the rich gold and silver reserves from which to mint coins. And the conflicts are not so much related to religious issues as to the struggle of conquered peoples for independence and to preserve their cultural identity.
Regarding the spread of Islam in the Balkans, there are disputes to this day, and the assessment of this historical era is key to the coexistence of religious and ethnic groups in the Balkans. According to some quarters, the spread of Muslim is part of the subjugation strategy. According to some scholars, however, the Ottoman period in the Balkans was filled with religious diversity: in the cities, Catholics and Orthodox Christians, Sunni Muslims and Jews lived together. The so-called millet system allows the "independent and autonomous life" of all religions, Turkologist Hadjisalioglu emphasizes. Residential neighborhoods were generally segregated, but people met at the market. The distance between the church, the synagogue and the mosque was often a hundred meters - as it is to this day in Sofia, for example. "Non-Muslims continued to enjoy a high degree of autonomy within the hierarchical order dominated by Sunni Muslims,", claims Islamologist Gudrun Kremer.
After 1870, Russia tried to conquer territories in the Balkans - a process which, according to historian Willian Holt, represented the "reconquest of the Balkans". Other scholars emphasize more the political and economic motives of the Russian offensive. And the fact that it does not succeed is mainly due to the policy of Austria-Hungary. In 1878, Austria conquered Bosnia and officially recognized the Muslims there as a community. The Habsburgs founded the Islamic community in Bosnia as an organization of Muslims following the example of the Christian churches in their country and introduced the post of supreme mufti, who is still the supreme representative of Bosnian Muslims.
Bosnia: Islam in a secular state
Since then, Islam in the secular state of Bosnia has managed to establish itself along with other religions. Among the features of Bosnian-Islamic life are the liberal attitude towards the ban on drinking alcohol and fasting, as well as openness towards other religions and lifestyles.
Polygamy, which is found in some Arab countries, was never practiced in Bosnia. And Islamist and Wahhabi tendencies have long been unknown. This only changed during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, when Muslims calling themselves Bosniaks were driven out and massacred by Serb and Croat nationalists, including through the Srebrenica genocide.
The break-up of Yugoslavia and the Bosnian war mean that the lines between ethnicities and religions are sharper today. According to the constitution, the countries of the Balkans are secular - i.e. state and religion are separated in all of them. Nevertheless, during and after the war, religion became a political factor as well as a powerful factor in identity formation. Still, Islam in the Balkans remains much better prepared to deal with violent radical tendencies than Islam in the Middle East or in the metropolises of Western Europe.
The roots of Europe are also Islamic
In Southeast Europe, Muslims, Christians and Jews have lived together for centuries. But Europe still finds it difficult to accept the Muslims of the Balkans as part of the continent. They are not seen as Europeans, but as "others", says British-Pakistani author Tariq Hussain.
"The Ottomans were perceived as the enemies of Christian Europe, from which the modern European identity was born,", notes Hussein. "Part of this identity is also the anti-Muslim position - it is part of Europe's DNA." Or in other words - you cannot be a Muslim and a European at the same time. But we understand from the history of the Balkans that the roots of Europe are also Islamic.